Review: Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate video editing software

For the first time in ages there's something to get genuinely excited about in the world of home movie making.

High definition (HD) has been a term that both camcorder manufacturers and software developers - including Pinnacle - have been bandying around for ages.

But with HD hardware prices obscenely high and technology stuck in a strange in-between stage, it has been hard for even the most enthusiastic videographer to take the plunge.

Now, however, there are newer, more promising HD technologies coming into play (such as the H.264-based AVCHD format championed by Sony and Panasonic), while HD camcorders like Sony's HDR-UX3 are finally starting to look slightly more affordable.

The latest version of Studio 11 - Pinnacle's home-use video-editing application - can, of course, be used with standard-definition miniDV, DVD and analogue camcorders. It can even be used to cut something together from the blurry mess you filmed on your camera phone should you so wish. But HD is clearly where Studio 11's heart is.

On the surface Studio doesn't seem to have changed a great deal. Vista users will find that the application's interface now works properly with Aero (unlike the previous version of Studio), though this is little more than a cosmetic concern.

Other than that, Pinnacle seems to have stuck with its tried-and-tested three-tab (Capture, Edit and Make Movie) layout, which is a perfectly logical way of managing a movie project and keeps the screen relatively clean and uncluttered. The workspace is now scalable, however, meaning that users of widescreen monitors can take advantage of the shape of their display.